America’s Sweethearts (2001)

Directed by Joe Roth. Starring John Cusack, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Billy Crystal, Julia Roberts, Hank Azaria, Christopher Walken, Seth Green, Alan Arkin, Scot Zeller. [PG-13]

Genteel but unscrupulous Hollywood publicist Crystal pulls out all the stops for a press junket promoting the latest movie starring Cusack and Zeta-Jones’ titular “it” couple—onscreen and off, in this movie’s world—who have hit the skids recently (she shacked up with her Spanish co-star (Azaria), he went off the deep end and wound up in a holistic retreat). A decent idea on the page, and it shows some promise in the early-going with a few funny ideas, trailer gags, and jabs at easy targets, but it turns far too predictable and soft for its own good, abandoning all sense of reality while chasing limp farce and mocking the publicity/gossip machine, and ultimately curdling into a cheap sitcom. The stars are okay in their respective comfort zones, and Walken and Arkin have their moments as an eccentric filmmaking auteur and phony New Age guru respectively, but Azaria does an embarrassing caricature of a stereotypical Latin lover. And was it intentional for Zeta-Jones’ character to be playing someone in a movie-within-the-movie that looks almost exactly like the character the real-life actress would soon after play in Chicago? Crystal also co-produced and co-wrote.

44/100